LCC Daily Devotions

Category Archives: Worry

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Matthew 6:25

Jesus said, ‘Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life…’ (v. 25) Now, the Lord is not condemning you for having a legitimate concern about your responsibilities. No, what He’s condemning is having a mindset that keeps leaving Him out of the equation, or turning to Him only as a last resort. Destructive anxiety subtracts God from the future, faces uncertainties with no faith, tallies up the challenges of today and tomorrow, and forgets to include God’s promises and His faithfulness. Jesus told His disciples, ‘I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough.’ Note the words ‘whether you have enough.’ That’s what we worry about, isn’t it? Shortfalls, sickness, redundancies, economic downturns. Faced with the feeding of five thousand people, the disciples had the same worry. Philip did an audit: ‘…Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!’ (John 6:7) How do you suppose Jesus felt in that moment? Standing next to them was the solution to their problems, but they didn’t go to Him until their backs were to the wall and they had no answers. In their hands five loaves and two fishes looked like nothing. Yet in His hands it was more than enough to feed the multitude and solve their problem. As the bread kept multiplying, surely they must have come to the point where they said, ‘Lord, why did I ever doubt You?’ Let your problems drive you into the arms of Jesus. And when you get there, stay there!

Prayer
Heavenly Father, by myself I cannot stand up to worry, but in Your arms I cannot only stand up to it, I can overcome my worries because of You. Thank You, Jesus. Amen

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

Identify the source of your worries. Did you grow up in a fear-filled family, always feeling insecure, never measuring up, and never hearing words of affirmation and approval? Are you listening to the prophets of doom, hearing only about what’s wrong, and how much worse it’s going to get? What’s the source of your anxiety? What feeds your worries? Until you can express your fears you can’t expel them. Putting your worries into words disrobes them. They look weak and silly standing there naked. In his novel, Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s main character, Pi, finds himself adrift at sea on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger as his companion. While on the lifeboat, Pi begins to analyze his fears, both of the sea and the tiger. He gives this counsel: ‘You must fight hard to express your (fear). You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.’ So pull back the curtain and expose your fears, each and every one. Like vampires, they can’t stand the sunlight. Financial fears, relationship fears, professional fears, safety fears—call them out in prayer. Drag them out and make them stand before God. How do you do that? ‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything… Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand…’ (vv. 6-7)

Prayer
Heavenly Father, although worry I am told is natural, help me to see that it is not godly, and that my worry needs to be spoken to You so You can heal me from it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen